Visor-like caps are in widespread use for various outdoor activities as a sunshade or screen. For instance, they are almost exclusively used by baseball players and by a great number of golfers and tennis players. Typically, the caps are subjected to an extreme amount of abuse, wear and tear as well as being deformed out of their proper configuration when laundered or folded into one's pocket or stuffed into a golf bag pocket. Under repeated use, conventional caps tend to become misshapen and this is especially true of the more popular form of visor in which the entire bill is reinforced with a cardboard or cardboard-like material which when folded or severely bent will not very easily return to its original curved configuration.
It has been proposed in the past to devise full-brimmed hats with outer wire or wire-like reinforcing members along their brims which can be coiled into a compact condition for storage purposes. Typically, such hats have required the use of some form of special material, such as, a fabric having directional strength or a particular dimensional relationship between the size of the brim and size of the reinforcing member. In this relation, it is desirable that the upper head-encircling portion be reinforced with a wire or wire-like member in such a way as to permit coiling into a compact storage condition as described; and when uncoiled and placed on the head will restore the upper portion of the cap to its original configuration.
Visor-like cap constructions have been devised with deformable reinforcing wires but are not designed in such a way that the cap can be coiled into a compact storage condition so as not to become misshapen when not in use; yet, when uncoiled, the visor will automatically spring back into its original crescent-shaped configuration with a curved bill when placed on the head of the wearer. Representative patents disclosing visor-like cap constructions with a reinforcing or stiffener section are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,931,046 to H. D. Klein, 1,666,098 to G. P. Kaul, 971,503 to C. I. Howard, 351,466 to J. J. Robbins and 1,435,533 to L. C. Knackstedt. Other foreign patents of interest are British Patent No. 187,553 to W. Schwalbe and Austrian Patent No. 3,627 to J. Komrowsky. A patent of particular interest in this regard is U.S. Pat. No. 3,357,026 to R. C. Wiegandt in which a resilient stay or wire is designed to reinforce and lend a specific shape to the bill of a cap without utilizing a cardboard or similar material in the bill itself. However, in Weigandt, as is true in many of the other visor-like cap constructions, the resilient stay or stiffener member must be removed before the hat can be folded into a collapsed condition for storage.